In 500 A.D. , a Neanderthal man is playing around with his son Grendel when they’re suddenly
approached by King Hrothgar of Danelands and his soldiers. These warriors see the Neanderthal as
a troll and have come to kill him, so the man hides Grendel on the edge of a cliff
before confronting the soldiers. Unfortunately he’s easily overpowered by torches and arrows,
and he falls off the cliff to his death. Then Hrothgar sees little Grendel hiding,
but decides to spare him and goes away with his men. Afterward, Grendel goes to the beach
and pulls at his father's body, but of course he doesn’t move. Accepting the sad truth, Grendel
takes a sword and cuts his dad’s head off to take it home. Many years later, Grendel has grown into
a burly man just like his father. Grendel still has the head around, and he misses the real sight
of his father so much that he goes to the top of a mountain and hits his head as a ritual to
swear revenge. Then he starts searching the area until he finds the small village where Hrothgar
and his men live. Later in the evening, Grendel sneaks around and surprises a soldier from behind,
quickly knocking him out before heading into the great hall. The next morning, Hrothgar enters
the hall to discover all his warriors have been murdered and decapitated. Meanwhile in Geatland,
Beowulf appears in the sea and rushes to the shore where he meets a fisherman who helps him
get an eel off his leg. The fisherman shares his dinner with Beowulf, who turns out to be a famous
hero. Beowulf pretends he doesn’t care much for fighting, but he remembers a recent battle he had
during which he killed multiple people with quick and precise strikes. Eventually Beowulf manages
to return home and hears a story about the Danes having trouble with a troll, so he volunteers to
go and help. The king of Geatland grants him permission to take a few men, and the next
morning they sail to Danelands. During the trip, a pale hand reaches out of the water to try to grab
Beowulf, but he moves away just in time. Meanwhile in Danelands, Hrothgar goes out in the middle of
the night and yells for the so-called troll to come and fight him. While Hrothgar is distracted,
Grendel approaches a guard and kills him before running away. Hrothgar sees him and tries to
follow him, only to lose him in the darkness. The next morning, Hrothgar is too depressed over his
losses because he’s realized the troll is slowly killing his men to make him suffer. His wife
tries to scold him to make him react and be the king his people need to no avail. Moments later,
the village prepares a funeral for the fallen soldier and gets the attention of Brendan,
a Christian priest. He swears he can scare the evil that haunts this village away, but
Hrothgar doesn’t take him seriously. A few days later, Beowulf and his men arrive in Danelands,
and when they’re shown around, they notice that the village is falling apart. They also see Selma
the witch nearby, but they’re warned to stay away from her. Hrothgar comes out running when he hears
Beowulf is here, revealing that the famous hero was born in Danelands and left when he was eight.
To celebrate this reunion, Hrothgar throws a special banquet. He is too depressed to offer
a proper speech, so the queen guides the toast instead. Then Beowulf promises to kill the troll
before he and Hrothgar have a talk in private. Beowulf asks if there’s anything he should know,
but Hrothgar swears there isn’t. That night, Beowulf and his men stay up to wait for the
enemy. Outside, Grendel comes closer to the village and finds Brendan praying,
but after sniffing him he decides to not attack him. Next Grendel approaches the great hall and
smells the door too, causing it to creak. The warriors hear this and get ready to fight,
but when they open the door, they discover Gretel has left without doing anything. The next morning,
they interrogate Brendan, who thinks he’s survived thanks to the protection of his God. Afterward
Beowulf’s group goes to explore the hills to look for the troll, and on their way up, they almost
get hit by a trap made of wood and deer antlers. This makes them wonder if it’s actually a troll
because a trap proves intelligence. After lots of walking, they find a snowy area, which they can’t
cross without proper provisions and equipment, so they go back to the village. Meanwhile Grendel is
having fun playing with the skulls of the people he’s killed. Back in the village, the locals are
so scared of the troll that they allow Brendan to baptize them to make them Christian, believing
they could survive like he did if they’re blessed. Hrothgar still prefers their traditional paganism,
but he doesn’t mind his people making a change if it means it’ll improve morale and give them
hope. Moments later, Beowulf goes to see Selma, who shares a prediction: the death of the troll
will cost a lot to both Danelands and Geatland. She thinks they deserve it because of what the
Danes did to the troll, but she doesn’t share the whole story. Afterward Beowulf goes to Hrothgar
and asks a few questions to learn that the troll hasn’t killed children, women, or old men, meaning
it fights with a clean heart. Beowulf can’t understand how this all started and it worries
him, which causes Hrothgar to lose his mind and yell at Beowulf for believing a crazy witch. In
the middle of the night, the warriors hear noises and rush outside to fight, but once again they
don’t see anything. After they go back inside, Grendel comes out of his hiding spot and runs
away. The next day, Beowulf sees Hrothgar training with the sword and quickly giving up. He cuts in
and challenges Hrothgar’s opponent, defeating him in just a few quick moves as he teaches him that
fear always has its place. Next, Beowulf asks Selma to read his future, but her ritual gets
interrupted when they hear some weird noises. Beowulf rushes outside and sees Grendel running
away, so he immediately gets on a horse and chases him to the mountains. Grendel climbs an area
Beowulf can’t reach and talks in his own language, but luckily Selma translates for him. It turns
out Grendel won’t attack Beowulf because he isn’t Dane, and when Beowulf yells at him with insults
to explain he was born here, Grendel just throws a few rocks at him and leaves. A confused Beowulf
turns to Selma, who explains Grendel won’t fight him because Beowulf did nothing wrong to him. On
their way back, Beowulf demands to know why the troll was outside Selma’s hut, so she explains
that she actually likes Grendel because since he’s around, men from the village don’t come to
take advantage of her anymore. Beowulf is shocked to hear the troll has a name, adding to the clues
that don’t add up. Afterward Beowulf goes to see Hrothgar, explaining he thinks Grendel is waiting
for him and his men to leave before attacking again. Hrothgar thinks the same thing and reveals
he’s been sick, so his fear finally makes him accept baptism from Brendan. Sometime later,
Beowulf notices the local kids throwing rocks at a villager, accusing him of having brought
the troll to them. Beowulf sends the children away and the man thanks him by offering to take
him to the troll’s cave. He didn’t say anything before because he had been scared, but now he’s
baptized he feels safe. Beowulf and his men take their boat to the beach and climb over a hill,
where they find Grendel’s cave on a cliff. One of the soldiers tries to climb down but almost falls,
so they decide they’ll have to come back later with some rope for safety. Before leaving, one
of the soldiers pees into the cave, which isn’t approved by the villager. During the trip back,
Beowulf is shocked to see a kid hiding in another cave. While everyone is distracted, the mysterious
pale hand reaches for the peeing soldier to pull him down, but his friends save him just in time.
That night, Beowulf has trouble staying awake, and every time he closes his eyes he sees a vision
of the cave kid with a sword. The next morning, they’re devastated to discover the village that
guided them to the cave has been killed. Furious, Beowulf and his men return to the cave and this
time they reach it safely with some rope. The place is full of bones and armor from the victims,
but Grendel isn’t around. One of the men is so frustrated that grabs the head of Grendel’s
father and destroys it. Afterward Beowulf goes to Selma to ask for her help. When she refuses,
he just ties her up and takes her to the hills, hoping Grendel will come out when he threatens
her with a knife. However nothing happens, so Beowulf releases Selma and after scolding her
for being on the wrong side, he leaves her behind. Meanwhile, Grendel returns to his cave and finds
the destroyed skull. After taking a sniff to track down the person who did it, he goes to the top of
the hill and does the same blood ritual to swear revenge. When night falls, Grendel appears at the
village while everyone sleeps and kills the guard outside by impaling him with a spear.
Then Grendel storms into the great hall, waking up Beowulf and his men. Chaos ensues as the soldiers
try to fight Grendel, who is too strong to be bothered by the attacks of puny humans. He hits
the men but doesn’t kill them, just pushing them away until he reaches the one that destroyed his
father’s head. After whispering the word “pappa”, Grendel finally kills him to have his revenge. A
furious Beowulf jumps on Grendel’s back to try to punch him, but Grendel just throws him on a table
before he starts climbing some chains to reach the upper floor. Beowulf jumps on him again to
make him fall and tie something up, but Grendel punches him away and jumps out of the window,
only to get caught in the trap Beowulf just set up. Now Grendel is hanging by his right arm,
however he doesn’t hesitate to grab a spear and take care of the issue. As soon as he
frees himself, Grendel runs away, leaving his arm behind. He bleeds all the way to the beach and
enters the water, where he dies and is taken away by the pale hand. The next morning, Beowulf points
out Grendel didn’t do anything to his own until they touched his stuff, so he wants the truth
from Hrothgar. The king admits he killed Grendel's father for stealing a fish and spared the son out
of pity. Afterward Beowulf and his men follow the trail of blood and discover it ends at the sea,
so they accept Grendel is dead. That night, the village throws a party to celebrate Grendel’s
gone, and his arm is kept as a trophy. Beowulf leaves the party to visit Selma and realizes
the witch is mourning for Grendel. Selma explains that one night, Grendel found her hut and used the
chance to take advantage of her. Since that day, he never touched her again, but started protecting
her against villagers. Beowulf decides to try to kiss Selma, but she slaps him as punishment for
tying her up and using her as bait. Next she jumps on him and they spend the night getting
frisky together. Meanwhile the creature with the pale hand comes out of the sea, revealing to be
a Sea Hag. She comes to the village and quickly kills Brendan before entering the great hall to
find Grendel’s arm hanging on a column, causing her to cry out because Grendel was her son. At
that moment the soldiers come after her, but the Sea Hag easily pushes them away and even
kills a few men before leaving with the arm. All this is seen by the mysterious kid from the cave,
who rushes to tell Selma about it. Selma seems to know the child and takes him away before Beowulf
can see him. The next morning, Hrothgar finds the massacre in the great hall and immediately
yells for action. Beowulf and his men ride to the beach and find a man’s head on a spear,
causing them to swear revenge. They search the area and enter a cave that appears small at first,
however Grendel notices it continues underwater. He takes off his armor and swims until he comes
out on the other side of the cave, where he finds Grendel’s dead body and a big pile of treasure.
The Sea Hag immediately finds him and attacks him, quickly disarming him before throwing him on the
floor to try to kill him. Beowulf tries hitting her with a rock until he pushes the Hag off him,
then he grabs a sword from the pile of treasure to kill her with a quick strike. Suddenly he sees a
shadow but it’s just the boy with the sword from his dream, and by watching him Beowulf finally
realizes this kid is Grendel and Selma’s child. Afterward Beowulf returns to the village, which is
going through yet another funeral. It’s time for him to leave, but first he visits Selma, pointing
out he isn’t like the others in hopes they could be together. Selma doesn’t agree because he killed
Grendel and created an orphan, so he isn’t any different from Hrothgar. This causes Beowulf to
put up a grave marker for Grendel to honor him, which the kid sees from afar. Later while Beowulf
sails back to his country with his men, he notices Selma and the child saying goodbye with a look.